The release of director Samuthirakani’s Naadodigal 2, starring director-actor Sasikumar and Anjali in the lead roles, was cancelled on Thursday, just a day before it was scheduled to hit theatres. Even while the film had opened for booking online, shows were cancelled at the very last minute. The film was slated to release on January 31, Friday.
The Madras High Court ordered an interim stay on the film’s release based on a petition filed by FM Finance and Investments. Judge PT Asha who heard the case passed an injunction restraining the issue of the KDM of the film to Qube, thereby staying the film’s release in theatres. Posting the matter for two weeks later, the judge has also sought the producer’s response.
According to the petitioner, Naadodigal 2’s producer S Nanthagopal of Madras Enterprises had requested financial aid to the tune of Rs 5.25 crore to produce the film and consequentially entered into an agreement promising the financiers the film’s distribution rights for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The amount was to be given in instalments over a period of time.
While FM Finance claims to have already paid Rs 3.5 crore in instalments, they were displeased that the producer had chosen to release the film without their knowledge and assigned the distribution rights with a different firm, namely Linda Big Pictures.
Stating that they were ready to pay the rest of the amount, Rs 1.75 crore, according to the instalment plan drawn up in their agreement, FM Finance had asked to be granted the film’s distribution rights as promised and also sought a stay on the delivery of the Key Delivery Message (KDM) to theatres until the matter is resolved.
Naadodigal 2, a sequel to the 2009 film Naadodigal, will see the coming together of Samuthirakani and Sasikumar once again. Both Sasikumar as well as Samuthirakani have several hit movies to their credit and this had upped the expectation levels for Naadodigal 2.